Electrical connectors are used in a number of different electrical applications. For example, electrical connectors are used in photovoltaic (PV) solar applications to electrically couple a PV solar panel to a solar collector. In such a case, an electrical connector can be used for one or more of a variety of purposes, including but are not limited to protective schemes, signal control, signal delivery, power supply, and power regulation.
In a PV solar application, signals (e.g., current, voltage) from a number of solar panels are fed individually into a single collector. Often, the collector includes a junction box or similar components. The collector integrates all of the individual signals from each of the solar panels into a single signal. Further, one or more protection schemes (e.g., ground fault, overcurrent) can be integrated into such a circuit. Because of the number of connections required for such a circuit, installation can require a number of additional components (e.g., conduit, junction boxes) and/or steps (e.g., crimping conductors to conductor terminals) that add to the cost of installation, the time to install, the difficulty of installing, and the difficulty in maintaining and troubleshooting.